The American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion asking a federal court to promptly halt the harassment and abuse of gay prisoners it alleges is taking place at the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility, citing immediate dangers to those inmates at the state's youth prison.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit last month on behalf of three detainees at the facility who said they were harassed and abused either because they were gay, lesbian or transgender or because people believed they were gay.

But Lois Perrin, the legal director for the ACLU in Hawai'i, said allowing the state to act only until after the lawsuit made its way through the court would "leave these youth in danger."

The ACLU filed a foot-and-a-half deep stack of papers with the U.S. District Court on Monday backing up its motion seeking a preliminary injunction, said Vanessa Chong, the executive director of the ACLU of Hawai'i.

"We feel there is an urgency to the day-to-day living for the ... youth at the facility," Chong said. "The changes are coming way too slowly."

Lisa Ginoza, the state's first deputy attorney general, declined comment because her office was still reviewing the motion.

The Office of Youth Affairs did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The ACLU said male inmates repeatedly harassed another male inmate they believed was gay and threatened to rape him. They also rubbed semen into his face, the organization said.

The youth prison did nothing when the targeted inmate complained, the ACLU said.

In another case, youth correctional officers allegedly told a lesbian inmate and her girlfriend that their relationship was "bad" and they "were going to hell," the ACLU said.

The Kailua facility has been the subject of several ACLU lawsuits and an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, which described the lockup as "existing in a state of chaos."

The Justice Department released a report in August saying poorly trained and unsupervised guards exploited and used excessive force against teenage inmates while failing to protect them from harm.

The highly critical 29-page report said the constitutional and federal statutory rights of the youth prisoners were being violated.